Cool Art is a blog about the process and business of art. It’s not really about “the art world.” I don’t know much about that and don’t want to.
Cool Art began as a simple way for me to share my thoughts and observations with family and friends, but I soon realized that there might be other people who are interested in this stuff too. So, welcome! If you keep reading, you’ll know more than 99% of gallery-goers out there.
Trying to describe the quality that makes something cool is tricky. In my opinion, it has something to do with how it makes you feel and how it makes other people feel. But how do you get that across?
I guess it all comes down to details. Details are what make or break a work of art. You can have a perfectly good idea, but if you mess up the details, the work will fail; or maybe a great idea but if you mess up on the execution, again, the piece will fail (although not as badly.)
So here’s what Cool Art does: we look closely at things we like and try to see why they’re cool. Sometimes we’ll notice details in our favorite pieces that we had never noticed before; sometimes we’ll recognize
Cool Art is a blog about the process and business of art. My name is Todd Levin, and I have been an artist, art writer, and art dealer since 1983. I am currently Director of Art at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City, where I work with artists such as Richard Serra, Christopher Wool, Cindy Sherman, Paul McCarthy, Anish Kapoor, Takashi Murakami and many others.
I started Cool Art because I was frustrated that there didn’t seem to be any web sites that covered the issues I was interested in — specifically, stuff like how artists make their living (or not), what it’s like to run your own gallery or to be represented by one, why some galleries are successful while others fail. The blog has evolved over time into a kind of community site for artists and dealers who care about the intellectual issues of art-making in the context of the evolving market for contemporary art.
At Cool Art you will find posts on all aspects of contemporary art — exhibitions and fairs attended; articles on topics from the history of collecting to how to run your own gallery; interviews with artists, curators and dealers; book reviews; even posts by artists about their own work. But no spam about sales or promotions or new
Artists, art lovers, collectors and other art investors can get valuable insights from Cool Art & the Art World. The blog is updated daily with useful information about the art world and fine art investment market.
Cool Art & the Art World (CAAW) is a professional blog that offers an insider’s perspective on fine arts and art collecting. The blog exists to serve as a platform for knowledgeable professionals in the fine arts to share their expertise with other members of the collecting community.
Artists, investors, collectors, galleries and museums are encouraged to contribute articles, ideas and opinions to help broaden and grow the discussion on works of fine art.
Blog created on May 15, 2005. I am a visual artist in Los Angeles. I am also a writer, art critic, and journalist whose work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Art in America, Bomb, ArtSpace (London), Flash Art, Frieze, Parkett (Zurich), The New Republic, and Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Reader (2002).
I have an MFA from UCLA in the field of art criticism and journalism. I started this blog to share my thoughts about the art world and its processes.
The Art World has been and always will be about money. The only difference between now and 20 years ago is that now there are more people who have money to spend on art, especially contemporary art.
The so-called “Art Market Bubble” was really a bubble of liquidity in the Art World. Everyone with some extra cash was looking for a place to put it. To them art was an attractive option because they had no idea what they were buying and didn’t want to ask too many questions.
The result was lots of money flowing into the Art World, which enabled artists to make more ambitious work, which in turn attracted even more money.
What is art? The question is not merely a philosophical conundrum. It is also, more practically, a question that every artist and art collector must ask. And lately, it seems, many artists and collectors are asking it.
A number of museums have recently announced major restorations and re-hangings. Art Review reported recently that over the past decade or so, at least eighty museum directors have been fired or left their positions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s director, Philippe de Montebello, announced this spring that he will retire in 2008 after thirty-six years there; the Tate’s Nicholas Serota will step down next year after twenty-six years as director; and the Modern’s Glenn Lowry is planning to leave after ten years in charge. Museums are struggling with varying degrees of success to attract new audiences. And younger artists are increasingly anxious about the future of their careers: according to a study by the Creative Time arts organization, nearly half the artists under thirty-five say they have considered abandoning their profession because they don’t see a career path for themselves.
In addition to all this ferment in the world of art, there is also a lively debate about what exactly constitutes art—and whether it matters. In an essay published last year in The